It was so nice in the past few weeks without the usual corona sound. For example, nothing had been heard from RKI boss Lothar Wieler for a long time. And one wondered where Frank Ulrich Montgomery, the President of the World Medical Association, was actually hiding. But as soon as something like summer vacation mood spreads in the country, the old sound is back.
Kassenärzte boss Andreas Gassen is in favor of lifting the obligation to isolate people infected with the corona virus. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) tweeted: “Infected people must stay at home.” Montgomery says so too. Gassen sees no need for a second booster as long as there are no new and significantly more dangerous variants. Lauterbach finds such statements "problematic" and insists on another vaccination for older people in the fall.
Gassen advocates seeing "a peace offering from the virus" in the omicron mutant. The chairman of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, then accused Gassen of playing with people's health.
Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) calls on the federal government to "finally act and present the draft for a current infection protection law", which expires on September 23. It is important that the countries are given tools to be able to react to possible waves of infection in autumn and winter.
This includes, among other things, the possibility of ordering a mask requirement indoors or introducing upper limits for persons. But Holetschek knows that the negotiations on this in the traffic light coalition have long been ongoing, and that the federal states are also involved - which, incidentally, could continue to decide on measures themselves.
It feels like the Corona autumn has already begun. Erich Kästner's wisdom applies to the coming weeks: "Will it get better? Does it get worse? one asks every year. But let's face it, life is always lethal.”
